1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connector having a engagement detecting device, and more specifically to a connector provided with a function for detecting whether two connector housings have been engaged perfectly. The connector having an engagement detecting device of this sort is suitable in use as an important connector for an automotive vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the case of a connector used for a wiring system of an air bag apparatus of an automotive vehicle, it is necessary to severely check whether male and female connector housings have been engaged with each other perfectly.
Japanese Published Unexamined (Kokai) Patent Application No. 3-285280 discloses a connector having a mechanical connector housing engagement detecting device. This connector is roughly composed of a female connector, a male connector, and a slider.
In use, the slider is first inserted into the male connector housing; the male connector housing is engaged with the female connector housing to connect male terminals with female terminals. Under these conditions, when the slider is further inserted into the male connector housing, the slider can be located at a lock confirm position. In other words, only after the male and female connector housings have been locked perfectly, since the slider can be moved to the lock confirm position, it is possible to check whether the male and female connector housings have been engaged perfectly on the basis of the movement condition of the slider.
In this conventional connector having a mechanical engagement detecting device, however, since the slider is stopped only a single stopper and further a lock detection arm is located outside, in case an external force is applied to the lock detection arm, the slider is easily moved, irrespective of the connector housing engagement condition, so that there exists a problem in that the connector housing engagement condition cannot be detected stably.
In addition, in this conventional connector, in spite of the fact that the connector housing engagement is detected on the basis of the position of the slider, there exists a problem in that when the slider is left pushed midway without being pushed deep perfectly, it is impossible to check whether the connector housings have been engaged perfectly from the outside.
On the other hand, Japanese Published Unexamined (Kokai) Patent Application No. 3-32377 discloses a connector having an electrical engagement detecting device. This connector is roughly composed of a female connector housing, a male connector housing, a slider, a coil spring, a V-shaped terminal shorting spring, and a rear holder.
In use, the slider is first inserted into the male connector housing. Under these conditions, the V-shaped terminal shorting spring is left open outward to short a pair of two male terminals housed in the male connector housing therethrough. Further, after the male connector housing is engaged with the female connector housing to connect male terminals with female terminals, the slider is further inserted into the female connector housing. In this case, since the V-shaped terminal shorting spring is kept closed inward and thereby the two male terminals are disconnected from the V-shaped terminal shorting spring, the two mated terminals are released from the shorted state. By electrically checking this release of the shorted state, it is possible to detect whether the male and female connector housings have been engaged with each other perfectly.
In this conventional connector having an electrical engagement detecting device, however, since the V-shaped terminal shorting spring is attached to the slider and thereby moved together with the slider, it is difficult to stably support the terminal shorting spring, so that there exists a problem in that the terminal shorting spring is easily dislocated and thereby,the reliability of the electrical detection deteriorates. In addition, there exists another shortcoming that the structure of the connector is complicated and therefore the manufacturing cost thereof is relatively high.